Arrow in the Knee
by Rain Harmonia
Summary: "I used to be a Huntress like you. But then I took an arrow in the knee." She reached up to remove her helm, red hair tumbling down over her shoulders and bright green eyes looking towards Beacon. (Something I whipped up cause the idea was just too good not to use. What if the arrow intended for Pyrrha's chest at the end of V3 hit her knee instead?)


**Arrow in the Knee**

 _LDR: Yaaaay, another RWBY fic from me! I can't claim full ownership of this idea though, as my dear friend The Inspectre and I were chatting and he said something that gave me the idea. Or...I decide to turn his idea into a fic. He's a cool guy, and y'all ought to head over to read his stuff after this. He's an amazing author. Seriously._

 _Anyway! This is gonna be sorta RWBY/Skyrim crossover-y but not really, and I'm not marking it as a crossover because all I'm using from Skyrim is the whole 'arrow in the knee' thing (hence the title — yes, I'm soooo creative, I know)._

 _Also! What's everyone think of the start of Volume 4? I gotta say, I love the way the show looks now, and I absolutely cannot wait for the next episodes! Redemption arc for Cinder and/or Mercury and/or Emerald, anyone? Also, am I the only one disappointed by the lack of Neo so far?_

 _Disclaimer: I don't own RWBY, nor any part of Skyrim, but I do own my ideas and OCs, don't steal 'em, yada yada yada._

* * *

"Nobody ever said Remnant was a safe world to live in. But we're tough. We manage. We being the humans and the Faunus of course. We built ourselves kingdoms and cities, we trained warriors, Huntsmen, to protect the everyday citizens from the soulless monsters called the Grimm. With the walls of our cities, both man-made and natural barriers, and the Huntsmen to protect us, we thought we were safe.

We were wrong.

Almost a year ago, worldwide panic broke out. Grimm — and lots of them — got into the city of Vale. They were accompanied by members of the White Fang, a terrorist organization comprised of Faunus that really have it out for humans, and even robotic soldiers from the kingdom of Atlas! Well, we know now that the Atlas military had been hacked or something, but we had no clue what was going on when it actually happened. Anyway, the combined forces of the Grimm, the White Fang, and the Atlas military had been utterly overwhelming. It was all that we, the Huntsmen-in-training at Beacon Academy, and the other students who were visiting from other schools for the Vytal Festival could do to hold them off. And we lost ground quickly.

The CCT Tower took a lot of damage in the attack, too much damage. Communication went down all over the world. Headmaster Ozpin always said that the people of Remnant would speak together, or not at all. It was poetic, but right then it was just a damn inconvenience. Nobody knew what was going on anymore. Beacon fell, and we had to pull out. Except...not everyone did.

I don't know what exactly happened or how, but I'd heard later that another Beacon student, the 'super famous and super awesome', as my team leader often described her, Pyrrha Nikos, had gone to face the woman supposedly responsible for all this. Another first-year student had run after her. I swear, first-years think that just because they made it into Beacon they can take on anything...

Oh, where was I? That's right. I'm not what exactly transpired, but the next thing we all know, there's this blinding burst of light. A bunch of the lesser Grimm dropped dead, while stronger ones turned and fled. There was this huge, nasty Wyvern Grimm thing involved in the attack that just froze, right there on the side of the tower...

None of us knew whether or not it was safe to return though. For all the Grimm that were killed or that fled, there were bound to be more that had sheltered from that strange light and still lurked around the city and the school. So we left.

A few months after, a bunch of Huntsmen and students from all over Remnant gathered to launch an attack on Vale and Beacon. My teammates and I were part of it. We drove out the Grimm that had decided to move in, and began to rebuild. The first to be repaired was the CCT Tower. We were able to put out word that we'd retaken the city, and former citizens came flocking back to help clean up and rebuild. Even people from the other kingdoms came to help. We're still working on repairs even now, but they're almost done and I really don't mind. When everybody's busy trying to make a place they can live in again, nobody has time to cause trouble. I don't think there ever existed a period of so little conflict between humans and Faunus in the history of Remnant as these past months.

Beacon's students came back to the school as soon as we could to continue our learning. Everybody jumped back into it with a renewed vigor, determined not to have to deal with such a defeat again. The police force underwent some radical changes and intense training, so they won't be so useless next time something like this happens. In fact, they're almost like Huntsmen now, except that they just patrol the city and its walls to keep people from causing trouble in the city and to act as the first line of defense against the Grimm outside the city.

Oh, you're probably wondering who I am by this point, huh? Sorry about that. I'm Amy. Well, Amaryllis, but I prefer Amy, and I'm a member of Team SKRA, a group of third-year students at Beacon Academy. ...y'know, sakura, like that flower that everybody in Mistral raves about? Yeah, that.

Oh, I seem to have lost track of time. I guess I'll end this here for now. I should be on my way to class."

With a sigh, the blonde teen sat back in her chair, reaching for a water bottle sitting on the desk next to her as she hit the red square on her Scroll's holographic screen to pause the recording. Maybe she should put this little side project on hold. Indefinitely. It felt so weird talking into her Scroll like someone was right there in front of her, listening.

The Cheetah Faunus stood up, tail flicking indecisively behind her, and walked to the window of her dorm room, taking a gulp of water before looking out at the courtyard below. Her eyes narrowed slightly at the sight that greeted her. Someone was down there, lurking by the gates and staring at the school. She set her water bottle to the side and opened the window, poking her head out to survey the side of the building.

It was late in the afternoon, and the sun was starting to sink, lengthening shadows. Luckily for her, it was on the other side of the school, so this entire wall was covered by a shadow. She could take the quick way down. Activating her Semblance, she reached down to touch the shadowed wall, feeling the rest of her body being pulled out of the open window as she merged with the shadow to travel through it. A few seconds later, the Huntress-in-training rose from the portion of the building's shadow that was being cast on the ground. Shadow traveling sure came in handy.

The Cheetah Faunus set off across the grounds with a purposeful stride, tail waving from side to side behind her as she fingered the hilts of her pair of rondel daggers, one sheathed at either hip. "Excuse me!" she called as she got closer, and the figure turned to face her.

Now she could recognize the changed uniform of the 'new-and-improved' Vale Police. Police, her ass. They looked like some kind of medieval guards, with their suits of armor and face-concealing helms. They acted like some kind of medieval guards.

"Yes?"

The voice that responded was female, one that Amy thought she should have known. Strange. "What are you doing, hanging around here? I don't mean to sound rude, but it seemed awfully suspicious, the way you were just standing there and staring at the school."

"I'm sorry." Dammit, why was that voice familiar? "I was remembering..."

"Remembering?"

"I used to be a Huntress, like you. But then I took an arrow in the knee." She reached up to remove her helm, red hair tumbling down over her shoulders and bright green eyes casting a sad look past Amy, towards Beacon.

Amy started in surprise. She didn't remember that strange scar that covered half of the woman's face, but she realized now why the voice had sounded so familiar. "Pyrrha Nikos? The Invincible Girl...was stopped by an arrow in the knee?" she blurted out before she could stop herself. With a gasp, her hands flew up to cover her mouth. "Ah...I'm very sorry. I was just surprised. Nobody's heard from you since the attack on Beacon; everyone thought you were dead."

"I've been keeping a low profile while I recovered."

"Recovered from being shot or from the knowledge you can't be a Huntress anymore?" Again, she covered her mouth. Damn, Roe was having too much of an influence on her. "Sorry, again."

Pyrrha smiled sadly. "You're not wrong."

Class was all but forgotten now, the Cheetah Faunus leaning against the wall and crossing her arms over her chest. Her tail flicked curiously. "Mind if I ask what happened up there during the attack on Beacon?" She nodded towards the tower.

Pyrrha grimaced, reaching up to touch the odd scar that sprawled over half of her face. "It's not a very pleasant memory."

* * *

"It's unfortunate you were promised a power that was never truly yours." Heated fingers took ahold of Pyrrha's chin, burning against the skin, and forced her to look up, her gaze meeting that of the red-clad woman who'd spoken. "But take comfort in knowing that _I_ will use it in ways you could _never_ have imagined."

Cinder's hand moved from Pyrrha's chin to her shoulder, keeping the worn out Huntress-in-training upright. Her other hand came to hover near Pyrrha's face, a white glove materializing over it, stretching up to her elbow. Wispy red energy swirled together in the palm of the glove, and a beetle that was clearly some sort of Grimm crawled out. Pyrrha barely had time to stare before the bug spat out black goop. She closed her eyes just in time to prevent any of the goo from getting in, but she could feel it clinging to half of her face. That wasn't the only thing she could feel however.

The Fall Maiden's powers were being drained right out of her.

Pyrrha tried to reach up in order to scrape the goop off her face, but Cinder's free hand closed around her wrists, forcing them down. Not about to let the older woman have her way, Pyrrha struggled to get away, but the grip on her wrists remained tight, preventing her from escaping.

Finally, when the last bits of the Fall Maiden's powers had been sucked out, Cinder's grip slackened and Pyrrha jerked back, reaching for her face. Before she could clean the goop off herself, it was pulled off by something or someone else. Hearing the clack of Cinder's heels against the floor of the tower as the older woman stepped back, Pyrrha opened her eyes...and was greeted by the sight of Cinder holding a bow, an arrow on the string. Just as the arrow began to be drawn back, Pyrrha's name was screamed.

Both young women looked to the source, Cinder apparently being startled enough to release the arrow early. As it arced towards Pyrrha, a blinding white light burst from Ruby's eyes, filling the area. Not, however, before Pyrrha saw the trajectory of Cinder's arrow. It wouldn't reach her chest, but its arc had it falling right for her knee...

* * *

Amy silently scrutinized Pyrrha for a few seconds, then suddenly drew one of her daggers and lunged forward, slashing at the red-haired female. Pyrrha dropped and rolled to the side, kicking the dagger out of Amy's hand. The Cheetah Faunus scoffed as she bent to retrieve it. "You could definitely still be a Huntress, you liar," she declared. "What's the real reason you haven't come back to Beacon?"

"...I kissed the guy I like before shoving him in a locker so I could go meet my demise."

"You are an awful person."

* * *

 _LDR: There we go. It's done. So like...y'all should really give me some feedback here. I mean, I went back and watched Cinder vs. Amber and Cinder vs. Pyrrha so I knew I was writing the lines in the fight scene and the bug thing correctly, BUT the first Cinder vs. Pyrrha I watched didn't include Ruby's powers activating, so I had to go find another one that did. Long story short, I had to watch Pyrrha die TWICE to write this for you people. The least you could do is drop me a review or something._

 _Also, on the topic of Ruby's powers, I am aware that Cinder got screwed up real bad. But I'm writing this like Ruby's powers had no effect on Pyrrha. I know, that's probably wrong. But, hey, until it's proven otherwise, let's all pretend that the silver eyes thing is like Fairy Law, in that it only harms those the user considers an enemy._

 _Now, before someone leaves a comment meant to 'correct' me on the meaning of the phrase "arrow in the knee", I KNOW what it actually means. I just chose to take it literally here. Also, Pyrrha never actually took the arrow in the knee. It didn't have enough momentum to pierce her armor. Which is why she's not crippled._

 _So yeah. There's that slapped together one-shot with what I feel is OOC at the end. Hope you liked it. LDR out!_


End file.
